Breaking Barriers 2018

In the spring of 2017, CJSW began efforts to make our production facilities fully accessible for volunteers with different abilities, and specifically for volunteers with vision loss. There currently exists a handful of media groups in Canada who are working towards inclusive and accessible media, such as Accessible Media Inc., or AMI. However, we found that no one program was recorded, edited, and narrated by and for folks with vision loss. By summer, our soundboard was outfitted with braille labels, and we purchased Amadeus, audio editing software made specifically for people with visual impairments. Three longtime CJSW volunteers Anthony, Kathy and Jesse created the program Bumping into Walls, totally autonomously.
Bumping into Walls is a monthly, conversation style spoken word program about living with vision loss. Recorded, edited and narrated by Anthony, Kathy and Jesse, the program is the first of it’s kind in Canada. Bumping into Walls is dedicated to the education and raising awareness about living with vision loss: the challenges, the successes, and the day-to-day walls we all bump into.
It is our hope that more stations will start to question the accessibility of their own studios, and specifically for those volunteers with vision loss. Braille labels and audio editing software that pairs well with screen readers (such as Amadeus) are good starting points to making the campus and community media landscape more inclusive and accessible.
We are excited to nominate Bumping into Walls for the Breaking Barriers award as it has been an excellent learning experience for CJSW in putting accessibility into action.